Donny (Richard Gadd) and girlfriend Teri (Nava Mau) in Child Reindeer. (Netflix)
Nava Mau, the trans star of Netflix’s new collection Child Reindeer, has revealed how filming the present’s transphobic assault scene affected her.
Mau performs Teri, an American therapist and trans girl in Richard Gadd’s seven-part drama.
The present, primarily based on Gadd’s real-life experiences, follows his character, Donny, who’s stalked on-line and in-person by the mentally-ill Martha (Jessica Gunning).
As Donny’s girlfriend – impressed by an actual former companion – Teri will get embroiled within the harrowing scenario, however vows to face her floor when confronted by Martha in episode three, just for the scene to finish with Martha tearing out a clump of her hair and screaming transphobic abuse at her.
Talking to Glamour journal, Mau mentioned filming the assault was the factor of the present she was most nervous about, and was frightened she “wouldn’t be capable of pull it off”.
She defined that as a trans girl who has endured violent discrimination herself, she felt triggered by the expertise.
“I had bodily recall in my muscle reminiscence from after I’ve been attacked like that,” she mentioned.
The scene is likely one of the present’s defining moments, and regardless of the trouble it took for her to alleviate such violence, Mau is pleased with the way it turned out.
“I felt empowered in pulling off the battle scene… I conquered plenty of fears on this efficiency. There [were] some excessive heights and a few deep depths that I needed to go to, and I went to all of them. I couldn’t be extra pleased with that.”
“It was such a blessing that I met Jess [Gunning] for the primary time once we had been doing our stunt coaching. And he or she was probably the most beautiful individual you would ever meet. She saved me cracking up. Continuous. These three days we filmed that battle, I used to be cracking up in between takes,” Mau mentioned.
A lot of the primary half of the collection focuses on the disgrace Donny feels in courting a trans girl and Mau revealed that being roped into “different individuals’s disgrace” is one thing she has additionally skilled.
“I needed to work fairly onerous to seek out the differentiating line between me and Teri. I associated to her a lot, and I deeply understood the dynamic between her and Donny, it was very acquainted to me, from my very own life, and from the individuals I do know.
“I’d love to listen to a trans girl’s life story that doesn’t embody brushes with different individuals’s disgrace.
“In our day and age, an enormous a part of each day life for lots of trans individuals is having to deal with different individuals’s disgrace and judgment. It’s virtually a second language that I converse that fluently.”
Child Reindeer is streaming on Netflix now.